Russia Launches Missiles & Drones At Ukraine. Kyiv Says Energy Infra Targeted, 5 Killed

Ukraine’s military warned of a massive Russian missile and drone attack after repeated drone attacks in the early hours of Monday. There were sounds of explosions in central Kyiv during the morning rush hour. The air force told Ukrainians, Russia had 11 TU-95 strategic bombers in the air and confirmed the launch of several missiles

According to Reuters, reporters outside Kyiv heard the sound of air defences engaging targets.

Russian forces fired drones, cruise missiles and hypersonic ballistic Kinzhal missiles at 15 Ukrainian regions — more than half the country, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Monday morning, as per Associated Press.

Shmyhal said that the energy infrastructure has once again become a target adding that Ukraine’s state-owned power grid operator, Ukrenergo, has been forced to implement emergency power cuts to stabilise the system.

Local authorities informed about explosions in the northwestern city of Lutsk and said that an apartment block was damaged. At least three people were killed in Lutsk, one in the central Dnipropetrovsk region and one in the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region in the southeast, according to local officials, as per the AP report. Thirteen people were wounded, one in the Kyiv region that surrounds the Ukrainian capital, five in Lutsk, three in the southern Mykolaiv region and four in the neighbouring Odesa region.

Meanwhile, the Polish Armed Forces Operational Command informed on X that Polish and allied aircraft had been activated following a Russian attack targeting western Ukraine and areas near the Polish border. 

Ukraine had been expecting a major Russian missile attack for some time. Last week, the US embassy warned of a higher risk of attack around Ukrainian Independence Day which was marked on Saturday.

Ukraine has intensified its long-range drone attacks on Russia in an effort to retaliate against Moscow, following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“The desire to destroy our energy will cost the Russians dearly: their infrastructure,” Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, said on Telegram, apparently vowing retaliation.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that a total of 22 Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight and in the morning over eight Russian regions. Four people were injured in Russia’s central region of Saratov, where drones hit residential buildings in two cities.